On Amplifying Marginalized Voices for Social Change - from Labyrinth of the First Gen

Welcome back to Narratives of Purpose. Today's episode is the last of our April Episode swap series.If you listened to our last two episodes, you already know that we are doing things slightly differently throughout this month in order to showcase even more unique stories of changemakers. You won't be listening to me and my guests.Instead you will hear from fellow podcasters who are creating some amazing content I absolutely want you to listen to, so I will drop you some of their episodes as introduction to their shows. The final episode swap of this month's series is from Labyrinth of the First Gen and here First Gen is short for First Generation.This podcast is hosted by Weyu Shameka, a Caribbean Afro Central American First Gen storyteller and cross cultural consultant. On her podcast, Weyu interviews first generations worldwide about their transformative journeys.In case you're wondering, a First Gen is anyone with familial community or ancestral ties outside of their birthplace. And as Weyu likes to put it, these natural born pioneers are breaking generational barriers and creating new paths where none existed before now.In the episode I share with you today, Weyu speaks with Fidel, a dedicated community activist of the Yungas community in Bolivia and a radio broadcast owner.Fidel's radio station has played a crucial role in amplifying the voices of the Yungas community and advocating for their rights, emerging as a powerful tool for social change. Take a listen to this bilingual English and Spanish conversation.

And welcome back to Labyrinth of the First Gen.I'm excited for the show because it is taking me back to my college days when I received a grant from the Mellomace foundation to do research in an Afro Bolivian community in Bolivia.And at the time I was studying abroad in Bolivia, I had an opportunity to live in the Yungas and really speak to Afro Bolivia, an activist and community members. And one of these people that was really impactful in the community is Fidel.He has a radio show that serves the Afro Bolivian Yungas region and he's here to talk more about his community work today in our show. Here is a snippet of today's episode.

The purpose of doing this is to. Help people express what they feel and with the radio show we can reach out with our communications, we can help with health campaigns and so on.

This is season three of the Labyrinth of the First Gen called Collective Missions and Transformative Narratives where you will hear the stories and hear the wisdom of first gens with an immigrant experience and or people who are navigating and creating their own paths. This is Labyrinth of the First Gen where we are pioneers just by simply existing.

My name is Fidel Bolivian and I don't just do a program. I am the owner of a media.Outlet that broadcasts radio. I do a program from Monday to Friday called Voices of Freedom where we conduct interviews. The program has news.We also have a bit of music, humor and participation from the people they call in to make their viewpoints and opinions on the topics. The program is educational as well as informative and we also transmit messages.I would like to know more about your program and how is it serving the community and the Yungas and the Afro Bolivian community.The radio has been around for seven years and it was usually two hours of program. But recent years it has been on for almost four hours or more until noon. Sometimes it goes on until one in the afternoon.The radio gives coverage to people here. The topic that is most discussed is the topic of coca or coca leaf.The radio is basically a place where coca produces and it is association of Coca Producers, the union organizers for coca and others and a lot of leaders. The coca partners are listeners and they participate. There's always information about coca.The partners, they also have their press conferences, their meetings and assemblies and their press releases and other broadcasts. We also provide special services to people for campaigns to connect to economic funds.And if there is an accident, we don't charge for social services and. And we think we contribute a lot by making people know what is happening.It is news that is made known and where people can also give their point of view and they interact with us sometimes perhaps they have an opportunity to say things that they don't have an opportunity to say in meetings or assemblies.And the radio gives a space to those people who cannot express themselves and also reach out with their point of view for how it contributes to Afro Bolivians. Well, we are almost the only FNM radio that is different and reaches different Afro Bolivian people right here.Now there's some leaders, we have coordinated their calls that are made. And there's an organization called CONAFRO.

It is an organization that brings together all Afro Bolivians in Bolivia. One thing that I did ask about was the visibility of Afro Bolivians within Bolivia.So a lot of people within Bolivia don't know that there's Afro Bolivian population. But even further, the visibility of Afro Bolivians on a global scale.And what does it mean to talk about the importance of the culture, Afro Bolivian culture as it pertains to that community and more specifically the Yungas region, where there is a current population of Afro Bolivians in the Country.

Fidel responded by saying, well, the cult and the experience of 'hoja de coca' is very much a part of the economy, which is an indigenous group in the La Paz area and Afro Bolivians as well.

Fidel talked about the most outstanding dance in Afro Bolivian community is 'saya'. And it is one of the only rhythms of its kind in Latin America.So there's not really any other place that plays on the 'saya' or really dances 'saya', like the Afro Bolivian community.

And Fidel emphasizes that 'saya' is really a representation of the people. Or the lyrics of the 'saya' reflect people's histories and experience and the past.And they often talked about how they were brought from Africa, certain traditions that they have, and how it was to be exploited in the case de la monera, which is the house of the mines, as slaves in Potosi. So they talk a lot about their history. And how does that connect to now and the present was what he emphasized.

Well, it is said that Afro Bolivians, there are different versions on the subject. That they couldn't stand the cold so much in Potosi. And so that that is why they were brought here to the Yungas, places like Calacala.And there's a town called Dorado, a small town that has an African saint called San Benito.

Fidel talks about how a lot of the beliefs were of. Like the Catholic religion were also adopted, adopted by the Afro Bolivians under essentially their slave masters, the Spaniards.And now they live in the Yunga. And they have been there since they were removed from the mines in Potosi. Because he mentioned before, it was very cold.And as a result, a lot of slaves are dying. So they were moved by their slave owners to places like the Yungas.And they were put to work and to maintain oja de coca, the coca leaf and haciendas that were owned by the slave owners or overseers.

And of course, yes, the crops. Well, I talk about the crops because not only was there coca that was produced, there was also coffee production, banana production.Well, here in the Yungas, it is like Eden. It can produce absolutely everything. But as time has gone by, the. The new generations have left those productions behind.

And the production of coca and the history of it is really important to know that the Incas, which are indigenous people in the Bolivia and South America region, they used it to combat the cold in places like the Altiplano, where they had to do really difficult work.Also for the haciendas, which are like slave houses, the Afro Bolivians were made to produce it as well. 'Hoja de coca' which was really cultivated by slaves, Afro Bolivians.But also when we're talking about 'hoja de coca' in the mines, it was really helpful because it was quite cold and working the mines was very hard. And with 'hoja de coca', it helped them with these habitual activities and really difficult activities that they were doing as they work.

So now I wanted to shift the conversation to the work that he is currently doing with his radio. And so I asked him what gave him the idea to start his radio and serve his community. “Que estabas pensado cuando tenia esa idea para hacer este programa ese show de radio?”

The purpose of doing this is to help people express what they feel. We can reach out with our communications, we can help with health campaigns and so on. We always try to make our radio educational.We have certain topics that are very simple and not deep. We always try to interview specialists.We also have put on programs with specialists and some social media channels that are expert or well known people. And, well, this is also a broadcast radio in the end, so people ask specialists on certain topics. We also touch on psychology.We have touched on health. Well, health also involves nutrition.We have brought nutritionists here, for example, the disease that most affects us and ah, well, everyone, including Afro Bolivians, is diabetes, because of the consumption of a lot of carbohydrates or sugar and so on. And we have specialists who talk about these topics of nutrition. Here you are always used to eating things that are not recommended.And a nutritionist, while he indicates what exactly you have to eat and so on. At the end of the weekend, we. Make another program called Music and News, deals with a wide range of different topics.

"Tienes una percepciòn que ese trabajo es una forma de activismo?" Curious around how Fidel perceives his radio show in the Yungas.And so I asked, do you have the perception that the work that you are doing with your radio show is a form of activism?

Fidel responded, we are all humans and we always like to collaborate. And he talked about his family and. How he inherited this trait of helping. People and his family. His father was like that and so was his mother. It starts when you are young.He was telling me how this time is changing and people are more interested in money than be interested in helping others. And they think that this is going to lead to happiness. It's important to be good with yourself.Being able to help, having contacts, having friends. We do campaigns they want to pay us for this and we don't charge for that.It is our way to help and while one feels good about oneself when one does good for someone else. I want to say thank you to.

Fidel for his time on the show and for his work in the Afro Bolivian community. He shares so much gems with us today and I hope there were many takeaways from the show as well today.And we would love to know what you think about this episode. Whether that means leaving us a fabulous review wherever you currently listen to your podcast and or leaving us a voice memo.I have a link to where you can leave us a voice memo in the show notes and we would love to hear from you what are some takeaways and what are some things that you learned and what were your favorite moments of this episode? Stay tuned for our next episode next week too day and until then be in peace folks and I will see you later.